The present invention relates to a method of repairing a body of carbon fiber, such as a rapier used in weaving machines, and to a repaired rapier.
Power operated looms for weaving fabric have been provided for approximately the last ten years with rapiers made of carbon fiber. These rapiers are frequently of channel shape, and may be thirty inches to eighty three inches in length. The carbon fiber rapiers are caused to slide back and forth during the weaving process in a longitudinal direction. In practice, it has been found that these carbon rapiers will break after a relatively short period of use, such as approximately three months. The carbon fiber rapiers split longitudinally, the split extending only part way along the length of the rapier, or in some cases, extending the entire length of the rapier and therefore dividing the rapier into two parts.
The splintered rapiers, no longer being usable, have either been discarded and replaced with new rapiers, or in some instances, operators of weaving machines in which the rapiers are used have simply stored the damaged rapiers in the hopes that a suitable repair method would eventually be found.
Attempts have been made to repair split rapiers by gluing the segments together. These attempts have failed, because the rapiers repaired by gluing have not proven serviceable in use.
Accordingly, for approximately the entire decade of use of carbon fiber rapiers prior to the advent of the present invention, no satisfactory repair method was known.